Nurses always seem to show up where and when they’re needed. Of course, they staff emergency rooms, ICUs, home health care agencies, community health clinics, and nursing homes worldwide, but they show up elsewhere, too.
Only some people are aware of their presence, but there are staff nurses on cruise ships, nurses employed at Disney World, nurses on the scene at NASCAR, and nurses acting as consultants on movie and television sets in Hollywood.
Naturally drawn to being of service through volunteerism, we can often find nurses staffing first aid tents at local 10k charity runs and bicycle races, marathons, fundraisers, and other community events. After all, somebody has to keep everyone safe by efficiently and expertly responding to cuts, scrapes, bruises, bee stings, and other urgent needs, so nurses often volunteer to fill those helpful shoes.
There are always examples we can point to of nurses showing up when and where they’re needed in an emergency. People fall and get injured, or they have heart attacks, strokes, and seizures in public places. This can happen at the shopping mall, the post office, the community pool, or a baseball game at a local ballfield.
Many people may keep driving when they witness a car accident, but nurses are known to pull over and be the first on the scene. Need a nurse? There’s likely one ready and willing to be a Good Samaritan somewhere just around the corner.
There’s Lots of Nurses Out There
According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a United States government agency tasked with “improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable,” there are over 4 million registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs), and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) nationwide, so it’s no wonder that nurses simply show up where they’re needed. There are so many of us out there, and that isn’t likely to change.
Despite ongoing nursing shortages that plague our healthcare system, millions of nurses keep punching the proverbial clock day after day — it’s what we’re trained to do. We may sometimes need to go on strike to fight for better pay and safer staffing, but in the end, we always come back — our conscience won’t allow us to stay away for long.
Nurses Showing Up
In a recent news story published by MSN, a security camera shows an 83-year-old man in the vestibule of an office building suddenly collapsing to the floor as he stands in front of an ATM. Fifteen seconds later, a woman arrives for work at a local health plan office with a toddler on her hip; she rushes into the office where she knows her nurse practitioner colleagues will already be at work.
Moments later, several nurse practitioners stream from the office, assess the prone gentleman, find no pulse or respirations, and immediately begin CPR, taking turns so that their efforts can continue at full speed while avoiding unnecessary fatigue from the strenuousness of real-world CPR. This scene may have been captured on security camera video footage, but this is real life, not the fake CPR we often see on television.
As CPR continues, one of the nurse practitioners emerges from the office with a defibrillator, administers a shock after everyone clears from the body for safety, and the team of APRNs successfully revives the man even before paramedics arrive.
In a video news clip, the nurses discuss their experience of the crisis that unfolded in the vestibule of the office building where they work. During the video, we witness the team of nurses having the joyous opportunity to meet and hug the man whose life they saved and his obviously grateful wife, who declares the entire situation “a miracle.”
This is one of many news stories chronicling what nurses are capable of. Still, it is illustrative of the quick critical thinking, rapid response, and closely coordinated teamwork that nurses are naturally capable of based on their training and education. Even when employed in a non-clinical office setting, the nurse’s mind can quickly assess and respond to an emergent situation. The nursing process of assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation clicks into gear as second nature, and sometimes, lives are saved in the process, even in the entryway of an office building.
The Nature of Nursing Never Changes
The nature of nursing simply never changes. We see what needs to be done, and we engage in an assessment that quickly triggers a plan that is implemented, sometimes with seconds to spare, as we saw with the aforementioned gentleman. Thanks to the nurses who saved him, he subsequently had the opportunity to undergo triple bypass surgery and live to tell the tale.
Yes, the nursing shortages will come and go, the strikes will come and go, and nurses will also come and go from the profession. But the fact remains: we nurses are here, we’re not going anywhere, and we’ll keep showing up where and when needed. You can count on it.
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